In June 2020 at Tarrant County Jail in Fort Worth, Texas, Javonte Lakendrick Myers was discovered nonresponsive in his cell. Within about 22 minutes, EMTs declared the 28-year-old to be deceased.

The Texas Commission on Jail Standards establishes minimum jail standards to ensure the safety of inmates and others. Required supervision of inmates is an undisputed way to prevent custodial deaths. During annual jail inspections county jails in Texas, it is not unusual for inspectors to discover that supervision of inmates was not carried out as required. The following are details from a 2018 jail inspection report in a Texas county jail:

At-Risk Inmate Observations Violation

Jailers in Texas county jails are required to observe inmates confined in detoxification cells and holding cells every 30 minutes at most.

• According to documentation at the jail, it was discovered that the face-to-face observation checks of the prisoners in the detoxification and holding cells were not conducted by the staff at the required intervals.

General Population Observations Violation

Minimum jail standards require procedures to ensure that there is a personal face-to-face observation of all inmates in the general population every 60 minutes max.

• Records regarding the face-to-face observations of prisoners in the general population revealed that checks were not conducted routinely at the required intervals. Welfare checks were made between 1 minute and 10 minutes late on a regular basis.

See Part 1 and Part 2 of this three-part series for more information.

A desire to assist inmates detained in Texas county jails is the reason posts are provided on this website. There is not an intent on this site to suggest misdeeds on the part of institutions or individuals.

–Guest Contributor